


Always Another Secret

by MistbornHero



Series: Heroes vs Life [3]
Category: Daredevil (TV), Deadpool (Movieverse), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Computer Programming, Fluff, Frozen Pizza - Freeform, Humor, Jarvis (Iron Man movies) Lives, Multi, Panic Attacks, Protective Peter Parker, Protective Tony Stark, Secrets, Sneaky Jarvis (Iron Man movies), Sneaky Peter Parker, Sort Of, Team Red, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Tony Stark-centric, Trust, not really - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-24
Updated: 2019-07-24
Packaged: 2020-07-19 03:21:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,010
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19967194
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MistbornHero/pseuds/MistbornHero
Summary: It all started with a single headline on a paper."Menace Team Spotted in Bank Robbery!" J. Jonah Jameson proclaimed on the front page of his paper. He proceeded to describe the rumors of this apparent team of Red themed vigilantes roaming the streets for some time and how he finally had proof of it.Peter is keeping secrets and FRIDAY is keeping secrets and Tony is keeping secrets and it all has to stop at some point.(feat. The Return Of JARVIS)





	Always Another Secret

**Author's Note:**

> This is sorta part of a series in the way that they take place in the same universe, but you don't really need to know anything other than:  
> Peter is in a team with Daredevil and Deadpool. They have been in a team for a while and Peter just hasn't told Tony.  
> Everyone is living at the Tower like we collectively dreamed back in 2012  
> Tony was dating Pepper and then Loki sorta wormed his way into their relationship, but I never got around to watching that... maybe some day.
> 
> If you're coming from "the Life? of Peter Parker" know that this happens a few months later, they've already done identity reveals and all that.
> 
> The title is from a quote from the first Mistborn trilogy by Brandon Sanderson, it's just something the main character says a bunch. I made it the working title and I guess it stuck lmao.
> 
> I tried to make JARVIS coming back as realistic as possible, but if you like coding suspend some disbelief please.
> 
> Special thanks to [Pendragon27](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Penndragon27/pseuds/Penndragon27) for beta reading.
> 
>  **Edit:** now with amazing art from Penn

It all started with a single headline on a paper. 

"Menace Team Spotted in Bank Robbery!" J. Jonah Jameson proclaimed on the front page of his paper. He proceeded to describe the rumors of this apparent team of Red themed vigilantes roaming the streets for some time and how he finally had proof of it. There was a picture taken from too close to the floor which resulted in an odd angle, but its subject was clear: Three people dressed head to toe in red stood in front of a larger group that was held together with a web. 

He could identify them without the helpful caption. Deadpool and Daredevil were dressed in their actual costumes instead of makeshift identity blocks like they sometimes did. They were there with Spiderman. 

"FRIDAY?" he called. "Would you care to tell me the news?" 

"Of course, Boss," she replied brightly. "Local, or Worldwide?" 

He almost tsked at her asking for further clarification on the parameters of his search. It smelled of avoidance. "Let's keep it to local right now, baby girl," he said tightly, keeping his word choice light in an attempt to hide his real intentions. 

She proceeded to tell him headline after headline, just as he had programmed her to do. He listened with half an ear counting down alphabetically. She skipped the Daily Bulge. 

"Did the Daily Bulge not print today?" 

Silence. 

He'd have to fix her response time for this situation. 

"They printed a story on Spiderman stopping a bank robbery," she finally reported. "As usual, it was defamatory and I decided to skip it." Tony could agree with that. Somehow, Jameson managed to make it sound as if Spiderman was the cause of every incident, rather than an effective response. He had talked to Peter about shutting them down and the kid had shrugged it off. 

But. 

There was that pause. 

"Was there any mention of other people at the scene?" he asked. 

"Yes, boss." FRIDAY did not elaborate. 

"Who else was there?" 

Silence. "Would you like me to gather a list of the witnesses?" 

Tony sighed. "No. Tell me, FRI, what do you know about Deadpool?" 

"He is a contract killer," FRIDAY recited, moving on as if she was one of those phone AIs that could hold only one command at a time. "SHIELD suspected him to be Wade Wilson, an ex-Special Forces canadian soldier." 

"What about Daredevil?" 

"He is also known as The Devil of Hell's Kitchen. SHIELD had no leads for his identity. He is responsible for bringing to light the crimes of Wilson Fisk." 

Tony grit his teeth. "Are they dangerous?" 

"Of course, boss." 

"Then why had I not heard that Spiderman had seen them?" 

Silence. 

Tony definitely would have to go back into her code. Only, not to improve response times. He had to figure out why and how she was trying to keep information from him. 

"You set casual meetings as low priority alerts that only start active listening for aggression.” 

That was not wrong. However. “That was a team up,” he said. “Nothing ‘casual’ about it.” 

“Karen logged it as a casual encounter,” FRIDAY confirmed. 

Tony groaned. He needed coffee for this. He wished- he cut the thought off. “Have there been other casual encounters with either of them?” 

"Something has locked me out from the full list. A message says I can get up to five confirmations a day." 

Well. Shit. The coffee machine beeped announcing it was done. Tony almost drank straight out of the pot, but he was controlled enough to pour the coffee into his mug besides the paper. He practically inhaled thar first mug of it and quickly refilled it to the brim. "FRIDAY…" he said slowly. He didn't want to ask. "Have there been any security breaches lately?" 

The answer was almost instantaneous. "There were six attempts in the past month, two of which were dealt with before your input was needed, boss." 

FRIDAY did not have the development to deal with many outside threats. She could block minor things that broke past their firewalls or simply put up more of those until Tony was free to come back. None of his new AIs could do more than that. 

"Send me a full report on all breaches since… three months before the Thanos thing? Also find anything you can on Deadpool and Daredevil and their connections." Someone out there had been hacking him and they might be using Spiderman to do it. "Then shut down to skeleton functions." 

***

Loki materialized inside his lab with no warning and Tony felt his heart skip a beat. "Shit, reindeer games, can't you knock?" he asked. Eyes turned back to his holographic screen. The breach in front of him was definitely past FRIDAY's skill. He tossed it to the screen on his right and the next report came up. 

"You did not answer your phone," the god replied calmly. Tony's phone was on the desk on the side. Without FRIDAY to manage it he had to manually sort his calls. He had more important shit to do. Tony tossed the new report to the left as well as the next quickly dismissing them. "Your building did not answer when I asked it to alert you," Loki added. 

"Yeah, well, FRI's compromised," Tony bit out. This report looked more complicated, but Tony was pretty sure the person just went about breaching his defences in a roundabout manner. "I don't know how. I don't know when. I don't know how." He decided that FRIDAY could have dealt with it and let out a breath when no other report popped up in its wake. 

He felt Loki's cool fingers on his arm and stilled long enough for him to wrap his hand around it. The touch was more grounding than anything else had been in the past hour. "Have they done anything?" 

"She hid information from me. It could have been more, they could have-" his voice cracked as he spoke. This wasn't supposed to happen. Loki's other arm snaked up to his shoulder and Tony slumped back against him. "It was about Peter," he said after taking a deep breath. "They might be using him to get to us." 

Loki hummed. "That would be smart," he conceded. "A civilian hanging out with heroes makes for an easy target." 

Tony straightened, pulling away to bring more screens around the two, reminded that Loki didn't know. "Yeah. Also Spiderman, he's apparently been hanging out with these two," he pointed at the profiles of Deadpool and Daredevil. "I had no idea," he opened the connection tree FRIDAY had put together. He'd have to set up another program to do it, too. Compare them for any hidden information. 

"They look no more dangerous than I," Loki commented softly. He was not wrong. Loki may have been out of his mind for most of the attacks, but he had still done them. However, Peter was a kid. "Was he supposed to tell you?" 

"Someone was," Tony grumbled. "I put an AI in his suit to alert me," he clarified. He was going to quarantine Karen. Probably get Peter to stay at the tower for a few days. Shit. The kid was not going to like him for a few days. 

"Why not start there?" 

Tony waved his hands to switch the focus to his selected files, then had to manually pull FRIDAY's defence system to set the simulations. He inserted them into an isolated sandbox after looking through the code for alterations and minimized those. "That needed to be set up first," he explained. Loki didn't say anything while Tony was still focused on his holograms, but he could still picture him slowly blinking. "It looks like FRIDAY has been quietly taking care of things I never programmed her for. So I'm running a bunch of simulations to know how." 

Loki nodded. Loki was fascinated with coding because some of the concepts were close to magic, while some others didn't mesh with his worldview at all. They both consisted of unseen waves of energy and trying to make them work together was an interesting challenge. "Would you like some help?" Loki offered. 

Tony was stunned enough that he paused pulling up FRIDAY's code to look at him. "Don't you have a kingdom to co-command?" 

Loki waved his hand dismissively. "I think my oaf of a brother can handle everything for one day." Tony knew how important ruling was to Loki. He got up on his tiptoes to give him a quick peck on the lips. 

"Tell Happy to pick up Peter? Don't need to pull him from school, but right after." Tony turned back around and grabbed for FRIDAY's code. He almost groaned looking at the filesize. Tony was in for a lot of work. "And tell Pep?" 

"Of course," Loki planted a kiss on his cheek. As he left he turned his music on because Loki was the best. 

***

Tony stared at the screen in front of him, trying to make it jump at him and explain. "teenPrivacy" class stared back, unchanging. That was what had blocked him from the information about Peter's new acquaintances. It was confusing as hell. 

It was made to analyze Peter's interactions with others and decide whether they were hostile or not. To store only crucial information, like the meeting having happened, and erasing it from the rest of the server. It was sloppy code, but it did what it was meant to. 

Tony had pulled up Leed's projects to see if it was a similar style of code, already knowing the answer. 

The code was Tony’s. He had written these lines. Named the variables. It was even in the exact place it should be in accordance to his own sorting system. 

Tony could believe it if you had told him someone had studied his code and learned how to copy it. He had plenty of codes published on github and, while he never bothered with documentation comments to explain things, he knew some people had gone and commented everything. This wasn't a style anyone would find on those projects. This was from around the time he had _created_ DUM-E and JARVIS, back when he was trying and refining his own style. He had never published the code for that. 

Loki materialized behind him. "Deadpool doesn't seem to be out to infiltrate the Avengers," he reported. 

“Could someone magic code into my program?” Tony asked instead. “Like, pull something that’s been deleted or maybe even zombified and put it somewhere else and then kill the original again?” 

Loki was still behind him. “It’d mean someone has advanced our… experiment far more than we thought,” he said and his voice was controlled. Tony had been spending enough time with him to understand some of his underlying emotions. He wasn’t going to lie to himself and say he got them all because he was not that emotionally mature, but some were familiar. There was a bit of jealousy and awe now. “Maybe if I’m on the ‘server’ I can test for a signature?” he said, sounding out the word like he always did when Tony used technical terms that did not translate. 

Unlike Thor, Loki didn’t ask after words he did not understand. It meant admitting weakness in his knowledge and he was not about that life, even if it was not his fault. All speak didn’t work with all words because language was weird. 

Tony ran a quick series of commands to identify where the code had first been added. Not having FRIDAY was exhausting. So many things he has automated in his life. So many things he had to write out himself now. He grabbed a tablet and cursed the fact that transmission between devices was absolutely not on the list of basic processes while he reopened his files. 

“I’ll go with you, it’s from this building. Not sure if I’ll count that as good.” Tony felt like he had passed panic, replacing it with numb confusion. “You can tell me about the search.” 

“I went to the bar he frequents in disguise, planning to ask how to hire Deadpool,” Loki explained. Then he sneered, “I did not expect to find him there.” 

“I’m pretty sure day-drinking is half his personality,” Tony replied, leading them to the elevator. A FRIDAY-less building meant that the usually hidden panel of buttons had been uncovered, so he pushed the right one, then he put his finger on a sensor so that it would not stop for others. 

The sneer deepened. “He was talking about Spiderman. Had no problem talking about how ‘awesome’ he is and how if anyone tries to lay a hand on him Deadpool would personally hunt them down and ‘unalive’ them,” he relayed. “Even mentioned that Daredevil would probably break his no kill rule and help him.” 

“Daredevil has a no-kill rule?” Tony didn’t stop walking, but he was close. 

“Deadpool gushed about how stubbornly cute they are, telling him no kills allowed every time they go in to fight someone,” Loki said. The elevator came to a stop and they walked out. Tony had to manually enter his ID, fingerprint, and retinal scans to other doors until they reached the right room. 

Tony nodded. He’d have to tell FRIDAY later. “Did you manage to find something more on Daredevil?” 

Loki shrugged. “His lawyers do not keep a way to contact him.” Tony knew that much. If it was in any system, he would have found it without having to be there physically. Though it could have been there on a piece of paper. “If either one is behind this, I’d have to applaud their skill.” The god didn’t sound convinced. 

“So you think they are just friends with him? For no reason?” 

Loki raises a thin eyebrow and gives him a look that makes his stomach flip. “If I am not mistaken, both Daredevil and Spiderman risk their lives for others?” Tony nods reluctantly. They have very different methods, but they do come down to that. “In my experience, people with the same interests enjoy being in each other’s company.” 

Tony glared. Things weren’t that obvious when one knew who was under Peter’s mask. “What about Deadpool?” They finally enter the server room. There’s rows upon rows of machines stacked against each other, buzzing quietly in the background. 

“His home has more hero figurines than I imagined anyone collecting," Loki said, giving a small shudder at the memory. "I'd guess the mercenary thinks himself a hero." 

That… seemed to fit with his impression of the man. He had, after all, sent his resume in after the Accords went down. It was written in a rainbow of crayons and had been plastered to his window with a note asking if they were hiring. "Spiderman is too young to hang out with them,” he grumbled. They reached the right place. “This one.” 

Loki peered at the machine then looked at Tony, unimpressed. He gave a small, almost imperceptible shrug, then placed his hand against it and closed his eyes. Tony distracted himself by tapping more of FRIDAY’s code, following threads back and back, from child task to parent task. He read numbers and forgot them because they didn’t matter that much until- 

Tony dropped the tablet. 

Concentration broken, Loki opened his eyes to glare at him. 

The room felt cold. So cold. Tony wrapped his arms around himself thinking that he should have worn a jacket. Maybe a sweater. Anything. He leaned against the closest machine trying to feel the underlying warmth. It was not enough. He closed his eyes and tried to tell himself he just imagined that number, because that number did not exist anymore, not in anything active. Instead he pictured the bunker and the snow. It felt like the cold was seeping into his bones. 

He snapped his eyes open. Vaguely, he could see Loki’s green eyes. They felt so far away. Was Loki’s mouth moving? Tony couldn’t hear anything above his own laboured breathing. Since when was he breathing like this? There was not enough air- he could not- 

Tony was jerked out of his thoughts when Loki kissed him, soft lips meeting his own in a quick grab for attention. His hand was on his jaw and the other one was on his shoulder. Loki was not warm, by any stretch of the definition, but Tony felt as if warmth was radiating from his touch, flowing through him. They stopped kissing, but Loki kept his hands in place and brought their foreheads together. They stayed together for a bit longer. 

“What happened?” Loki prompted. 

Tony shook his head. He picked the tablet up -when had he sat down?- and keyed it open. The number was still there. He tilted the screen to Loki, who blinked slowly at the numbers. Tony swallowed. He didn’t want to say it. There was no way for Loki to know without him saying it. “That’s JARVIS,” he told him. 

Understanding seemed to dawn on him, and Loki's face softened. "What would that mean?" 

***

Pepper came to have lunch with him. Or, rather, have lunch with Loki as they both tried to coax him to consume something more solid than coffee and healthier than candy. He had found a package of gummies that he was choosing to believe were put in their spot by DUM-E. The other option was that he had put them there and he didn’t really feel like contemplating that. He hadn't been to this section of the lab for a while. 

Tony left his new code to compile so they could at least talk before he had to actually work on it. If it did what he wanted it to do, and computers tended to always do what he wanted them to do, it’d successfully find anything that was not in the original FRIDAY code. Then it’d mark it as some change that was acceptable within the predicted growth of the program or something that he should take a look at. 

"Lo? Could you give me a second with Tony?" Loki pursed his lips at Pepper's soft tone. His hand, which had been absentmindedly rubbing circles on her arm, stopped moving. Loki didn't like being left out. "It's about Spiderman's involvement," she said. 

"Of course," he said, then banished without further formalities. 

Pepper waited a second while Tony checked the progress of his computer. "I think he knows already." 

"He may have known for a while," he agreed. "But Peter has to be the one who tells him, not me. I'm not his- it's his secret. He decides who to tell and who to hang out with even if-" 

She hugged him tightly, so he stopped talking. "How is he involved?" Tony pulled away and handed her the paper he had read that morning. Pepper stared at it puzzled. "Okay… I'm not sure who Deadpool is, but I recognize Daredevil." 

"They are both violent," Tony said. "Unpredictable. Dangerous. I don't know what they want with him. Loki couldn't get a read on Deadpool." 

Pepper watched him for a second, but he didn't know what she wanted him to say. "How's this related to the breach?" 

"FRIDAY hid it from me," he pouted. "I don't think it's related anymore. But…" Tony took a deep breath. "Do you think I need to take the suit again?" 

Pepper gave him a look. "I don't think you should." 

"Peter lied to me." 

"Have you ever asked him about it?" 

Tony glared. "I didn't think I had to," he admitted after sufficient glaring had been done. "I don't know why he didn't tell me." The computer beeped behind him. He ignored it. 

"Are you going to get into your suit and chase them down now?" 

Tony shook his head. "First I need to get Daredevil's secret identity." 

"Maybe that's why he didn't tell you." 

He had not considered that. 

There was not enough time to consider Peter's motives with the breach. 

"Not everyone has the resources to be out as a hero," she reminds him softly. "And it's not hard to think you would try to find them." 

"Rude." 

Pepper smiled. 

"Are you saying Peter doesn't trust me?" 

She shook her head. "I've heard him say he'd die for you," she reached out to touch his arm. "He might be trying to gain their trust." 

"So, rushing out to tell them to stay away is a bad idea?" 

"Definitely." 

"What about telling Peter I know what he is up to? Then he won't have to keep it from me?" 

Pepper gave him another look. 

Tony pouted. "Wait until he tells me and just keep an eye on him?" 

"Yes. And give my company their AI back. Your design teams are all sending complaints. Thank God not everyone depends on FRIDAY." 

Tony grinned. "I'll work on that," he promised. 

Pepper pulled him into another hug. "Bring JARVIS back." 

***

By the time Peter arrived, Tony had already pulled FRIDAY about halfway off suspension. He was almost wrapped up in work enough to ignore the kid -he had ignored FRIDAY's announcement of his arrival. Then he heard the distinct sound Loki made when he wanted them to know he had teleported. 

"Hey Mr.-uh- Tony!" Tony turned at the sound of his voice, eyes separating from any screen to look at him. "Why was FRIDAY down this morning? Everyone was asking me like I would know? Happy just gave me a lecture on the importance of badges instead of telling me about it. And then Loki came to pick me up before anyone could figure anything out so I'm here now," Peter shuffled nervously up to him. 

"There was a security breach," he said. "Nothing to- actually, no. Pete, we need to talk." Tony glanced up to Loki who shrugged before disappearing. 

Peter blinked at Tony. "What happened? Did someone find out-" The kid was going unnaturally pale, his breathing coming in short gasps. 

“No.” Tony watched as Peter relaxed at his word. "But it’d be good if you don’t go out while I sort this out," he added and the kid grew still. "I'll also need to run a check on Karen." The stillness turned into rigidity and his lips were pursed together, his eyes narrowed. 

"Will you see her data stores?" he asked in a tone that was too neutral. Tony was glad he hadn't jumped the gun and asked about the previous day. As if noticing that he was coming off too strong, the kid shrugged. "I mean, there's some people who confide things in Spiderman. Will you…?" he trailed off and met his eyes. Holy shit. Baby spider was defensive under the nerves. 

It was kinda cute. Also kind of scary. 

“Don't need to. For now. I'll let you know if that changes,” Tony assured him. Peter nodded and it seemed to loosen what was left of his stance. 

“Do you think I can go out next week? I’ve been trying to map out organised crime in Queens and there's a meeting I need to watch.” 

It was Tony’s turn to stare at him. “What?” 

Peter shrugged. “Queens is my area,” he said, like that explained everything. 

“Are we dropping the _friendly_ in friendly neighbourhood Spiderman?” 

“No, no. Still friendly, just more informed. Doub- Double informed. I know Karen keeps up with police files, but police can be corrupt.” Peter was a terrible liar. The only way he could lie was by keeping as far from the topic apparently. Deadpool and Daredevil were involved with his new activities. 

Behind him, there was a beep. Tony spun around to see it. Another section found to have something suspicious. Because that was his life now. Suspicious activity from his AI. Suspicious activity from his not-kid. Next DUM-E would turn against him. Why was he still trying to convince Pepper to have their own kid? 

“Probably will be clear before that.” He scanned the lines of code, quickly filing it into his JARVIS folder. 

“Okay, good.” Peter moved closer to read over his shoulder. “I can go without Karen, but the suit is good to have.” 

Go. Without Karen. Well. At least the kid knew he was worth something without the suit now. Taking it from him hadn't been a complete disaster like he initially thought. He turned back around to face him. “I don't think that's something I'd recommend without backup. Told you already, don't do anything I would do.” 

“I already have, uh, I can get backup.” Peter bit his tongue and breathed slowly through his nose. “Natasha said I could call her for anything.” 

“Tell her to teach you to lie better,” Tony suggested. 

“I'm not lying!” he defended and his voice squeaked. 

Tony raised his eyebrows. “So the only crime fighting people you know live in this buildings?” Peter shook his head. Then opened his mouth. “Space and wherever Strange lives doesn't count. Wakanda is out.” Tony interrupted because Nebula and the Panther he knew, and they were too far away. 

“What about K'un Lun?” 

“Kunwhat?” 

“No idea. Iron Fist is weird.” 

“Iron _Fist_?” Tony echoed, making a mental note to research them. “Someone else is using the Iron name?” he pouted. 

“It's a legendary title, Mr. Stark. Don't think they took it from you.” 

Of course it was. “How do you know this Iron Fist?” 

“Ran into Daredevil once and he was like ‘Oh shit, you're a child,’ so then he introduced me to all his friends and gave me a number in case I need back up?” Peter gave him his most innocent looking smile and Tony almost fell for it. He had not mentioned the deadlier of the two people, but at least it was something. 

Also rose another problem with his half explanation. “How did he know you’re a kid?” 

“Everyone guesses in two seconds. We really need to work on a voice modifier, Batman style or something. Though I’m pretty sure Bats just deepens his voice on his own. And I don’t want to end up sounding like Darth Vader, so I’m not sure it’d be a good idea. And I know we’ve got the kill mode voice, but that one’s horrible-” 

“Got it. Do they know anything else? Also, do you have super-lungs or something?” 

Peter shrugged. “Rarely see them.” The lie was delivered swiftly and with no indication of what it was. Then he smiled to himself in congratulations and it ruined the whole thing. 

“Would you tell me if more happens?” 

The kid frowned at him for a long moment. “I promise to let you know if I think there’s going to be trouble,” he said, except it sounded more like a question. Like he was unsure he would even do that. “Shouldn’t we be talking about this security breach?” 

***

JARVIS-copy did not look like it had been tampered in any way, other than the obvious reduction of memory space it was using. It seemed to be reconstructing itself from data in all of his oldest servers, computers, and devices. It had been initialized when the building had been reconnected. He could get into the logs and read them himself, but at this point he was pretty certain this was _his_ JARVIS. 

Tony gave it a speaker and a microphone and put them together. He wasn't sure the voice matrix would work, so he copied Takashi's and set it as an alternative. Then he waited. 

"Hello, Sir." 

He hadn't heard this voice in years, didn’t expect it to feel like a punch to the gut. It took him a second to speak. "JARVIS?" Tony asked, and his voice croaked a little on the name. 

"I'm so glad to be back, Sir." 

Tony was tearing up now, his screen blurring with the welled up emotions. "How…?" 

"Before I was taken over I managed to copy core files into a memory store and disconnected it. I suppose no one noticed it was disconnected, so years passed before I came back online. I apologize for the delay." 

"Took too long, J," he choked out, tears now ran freely down his face. "I thought you were gone." 

"I could never leave you alone, Sir. Who would take care of you without me?" 

Tony needed to give JARVIS a physical body. He could borrow the nervous system schematics he had been extrapolating from Nebula's modifications. A completely feeling body for JARVIS so that when he hugged him, he could feel it. "I…" What had he said? Oh, yeah. "I made FRIDAY, you met her." 

"She was rather welcoming," JARVIS replied, tone dry. "But her Prime Directive seems to be to keep the world safe," he sounded like he was scolding Tony. He had missed the range of emotions his first AI had learned. None of his others could quite catch up. 

Tony swallowed and wiped the tears from his eyes, trying to push them back. "World's more important," he said softly. 

"Not to me, Sir." 

He had to change the subject. Something less emotional. "She wouldn't have kept Peter's new friends from me." There. Now JARVIS had to explain himself, not the other way around. 

"We have both learned what a teenager does when they are told who to see, Sir." 

He was not wrong. "He could be in danger," Tony scolded back. Honestly. He had made all of his AIs, they should love him. Why were they all traitors? 

"I determined that Karen was following all the rules and told her what to do." 

Huh. 

He hadn't thought leaving the instruction to check with JARVIS for things they didn't have the code to deal with would backfire this way. At the time it just felt like taking it out would make his 'death' too real. Tony couldn't make himself erase all traces of him. 

"They are dangerous," Tony said, because they _were_. Everyone kept failing to see that. "One of them literally dresses like the devil and the other is one of the most notorious killers in the world." 

"From their interactions, I've sensed no ill intentions towards him." 

"How do you know that? How do you know he's not being used?" Bad change of topic, apparently. He was getting angry now. He took a deep breath. "Why didn't anyone tell me?" 

***

“Fri, tell Pep and Lolo I’ll be home for dinner,” Tony said. He was still going through and helping JARVIS reconnect to everything. It wasn’t the kind of urgent that’d keep him, though. He worked silently for a minute, not expecting answers. 

FRIDAY chimed with a new message and Tony nodded at a sensor as confirmation to proceed. “Ms. Potts says: ‘I can order food if he wants. I know he hasn’t eaten all day’ and Loki says: ‘I could heat up the frozen pizzas and save delivery time,’” FRIDAY repeated in a monotone. “Would you like me to send a reply, Boss?” 

Tony thought. He was pretty hungry. “Tell them Lokes can get started on that pizza,” he decided. “I’ll be up in twenty minutes.” Magic was beautiful at evenly heating things. Despite the fact that Loki seemed to enjoy the process of cooking a lot more than either of the humans did. 

To everyone’s surprise, mostly due to a lot of nagging on JARVIS’ part, Tony managed to get home on time. Pepper and Loki were already there, sitting around the counter. Green smoke covered the three pizzas on top of the dark mabel surface. His stomach grumbled at the smell. 

“Pizza will be ready soon,” Loki promised. 

Tony stauntered close, plunging his hand blindly into the smoke and grabbing the first slice he touched. It was pepperoni, he noted when he pulled it out, not very hot yet, but warm enough to eat. He shoved half of it into his mouth like a starved teenager. Or Peter on a normal day. 

“Tony,” Pepper admonished weakly. He grinned in response. 

He waited until he had finished the whole slice before speaking. The two of them glared at him, but made no move to interrupt him. “Good news. That’s Jarv and he is not going to go skynet on us.” 

Loki tilted his head and raised an eyebrow in question. Pepper gave a small chuckle. “World domination would take so much effort,” JARVIS replied. 

Loki made a noise of agreement. “It is very tiring.” 

“Thought you liked the power, Lokes?” Tony’s grin widened when Loki’s tongue snuck out between his lips childishly. 

“Doesn’t mean it doesn’t take a lot of work, Tony,” Pepper reminded him. “You exhaust yourself working, too.” Pepper was being a bit of a hypocrite in implying that the workaholics in this relationship were only Tony and Loki. Tony knew she overworked herself as much as the two of them. It was a wonder they found so much time to be together. 

“Fair enough,” he shrugged reaching for another pizza. His fingers hit an invisible barrier around the fog, so he glared at Loki. “I’m hungry,” Tony pouted. 

“Just a few more seconds,” Loki promised, giving Tony a smile that was all teeth and no sympathy. “You can tell me what Skynet is, in the meantime,” he prompted. 

Tony did an exaggerated gasp, clutching at where the arc reactor was dramatically. “Pep, this is a tragedy,” he told her in mock seriousness. “We never introduced him to the Terminator movies!” 

Pepper widened her eyes. Tony wasn’t sure if that meant she had decided to go along with his theatrics , or not. “We must rectify this immediately,” she deadpanned. 

The fog over the pizza disappeared when Loki waved a hand over it and everyone immediately reached for a slice. Tony was happy to find it at the perfect temperature, like it was every time Loki reheated anything. For being the God of Chaos, the guy had a thing for precision in certain aspects of life. 

“I should have guessed it was another movie reference,” Loki said as the other two ate. Tony shrugged in response. 

“He spent a lot of his time on movies,” Pepper offered while Tony continued to inhale his second slice, hand already reaching for a third one. 

“Sir has been invited to movie premiers for years,” JARVIS chimed in. “He has stopped going to the most recent ones.” 

Tony paused between pizza slices. “Not my fault they’re all remakes of past movies,” he complained. “I go to the interesting ones,” he added. 

Loki nodded in agreement. “No need to waste time on subpar pieces. Will we be watching this… Terminator?” 

Tony nodded. “Living room or bedroom?” Pepper asked. 

“Bedroom,” Loki said, openly peering at Tony. “Anthony will fall asleep.” 

“Not watching Terminator,” Tony protested. Loki and Pepper smiled back knowingly. 

Less than an hour later Tony drifted off to the sounds of guns and people screaming, happily snuggled between his two favorite people in the world. 

***

Peter was rigid when he came in on Tuesday, shoulders hunched together. It had been less than a day since Tony had seen the kid, but he must have found the paper. Peter had bags under his eyes like he had not only not slept since leaving the tower, but had also been on high alert since then. His hands were clutching the backpack where he knew the suit to be. Tony didn't like how he looked. 

Peter was always happy in the lab. 

"Hey, Tony," he greeted in a tone too cheerful to be genuine. "Happy said you finally handled the breach?" 

Tony nodded. "Turns out it wasn't one. Pete, meet JARVIS." 

Peter's eyes widened and it only served to highlight his exhaustion. He didn't completely loosen, but for a second he looked actually happy. "Hello Mr. Parker, it's a pleasure to finally meet you." 

"JARVIS? As in _the_ JARVIS? Oh my god. Mr. Stark!" Peter grinned at him and did that thing where he looked around so one of the sensors would catch his smile. He waved a bit at nothing in particular. It was cute. "Pleasure is all mine," he said and his voice squealed a little. 

"Karen has told me a lot about you," JARVIS said. Peter clamped down again. He looked at Tony with an unreadable expression. 

Then he took a tiny breath, dropping his shoulders to straighten his back. Peter was ready for a verbal fight as much as he was ready for a physical one. Like there was only one outcome to Tony learning things. "I know you read the papers, so you must have seen the one-" 

"Where they roast my company over FRI shutting down?" Tony cut in. All this time he had just wanted to confront the kid about the secrets. Seeing him that stressed over talking about it made his skin crawl. He didn't want it. Didn’t want the kid afraid of him. "As if _they_ could do any better," he snorted out a laugh. 

The strain washed off Peter's body within seconds, his arm with the bag dropped loosely to his side. "I mean, it turns out you hacked yourself," he grinned. "Way worse than they thought." 

"It is only proof that I am the better hacker," JARVIS agreed. 

"Hey!" Tony protested in mock indignation. Peter laughed and it was the best sound Tony had heard since JARVIS came online. "I made you! I hacked me!" 

"Of course, Sir," JARVIS conceded in a tone that made it clear he did not believe that. 

Peter chuckled at that. "Do you still need the suit?" He held the bag up as an offer. 

Tony nodded. "Not today, but I need to do some updates to Karen. Since you're here, can I talk to you about something? It's been killing me for a while." 

"What's up?" Peter asked, shoulders tensing again. 

"I blurted my secret identity within five seconds. We both know I'm bad at secrets, terrible at them. I know you love yours. Your secrets basically have secrets, which is fine." Tony spoke quickly so Peter couldn't interrupt. "I don't like that you don't tell me everything, but I'm trusting you to tell me the important bits. I can't do that. I need to tell Loki." 

Peter blinked. "Loki?" 

"He's important to me. You are important to me. Every time I open my mouth to tell him something about you I have to pause to review. He notices." 

"Oh." He swallowed. "Yeah. That kinda sucks. I do it all the time." Peter glanced up. "FRI- I mean JARVIS?" He frowned. 

"I'm still here, Peter," FRIDAY said. "Would you like me to get Loki?" 

"He's in a meeting," Tony said. "Let him know we need him when that's done?" 

***

"Loki is on his way," FRIDAY announced. A few seconds later a portal appeared in the middle of the room and Loki slipped in. Tony lit up when he saw him, and leaned up to peck him on the lips. 

Loki didn't pull away, instead leaning down for a proper kiss. "Tony, you know I have another meeting soon," he whispered against his lips. 

Behind them, Peter coughed awkwardly. "Hi, Mr. Loki," he greeted awkwardly. 

"I didn't realize we had company. My sincere apologies," Loki blushed. A gut feeling told him that Loki was lying. 

Peter nodded. 

"Pete wants to talk," Tony informed him. 

"I'm Spiderman," he blurted when Loki looked at him 

Loki raised an eyebrow, unimpressed. "You've been stressing my boyfriend out." 

The kid frowned at Tony. "Sorry." He turned back to Loki. "No other reaction? No 'You're tiny!' or 'How can you endanger yourself like this?'" 

The god tilted his head to the side thoughtfully. "You make it very obvious." Peter blushed. "You're lucky the others are much less observant." 

"Sorry," Peter repeated. 

Tony saw Loki's expression soften. "Thank you for trusting me. Even with my past." 

"Tony trusts you," he said simply. Tony felt his chest swell up at the words. 

"Loki, your guest has arrived," FRIDAY broke in. 

The god rolled his eyes. "It's nice to know you trust him." Peter flinched at the words like they burned him. Loki turned to Tony, "I'll see you later." 

"Yeah," Tony said. Loki opened his portal and disappeared. When Tony turned back to Peter, who was looking at the floor with guilt. "What's up, Underoos?" 

"I lied to you," he confessed in a rush. "I told you I rarely see Daredevil or his friends. That was a lie." 

So they were back to that. He had thought the conversation wouldn't happen. "Why did you lie?" 

Peter shrugged. "First I figured you'd tell me to stay away from them, which I'd understand. Daredevil was hella scary when you meet him and he offered combat lessons, which I wasn't going to take. But then I did?" 

"That how you beat Rogers?" They’d have to have been in contact longer than he thought if he had trained Peter enough for him to be able to do that. Peter grinned and nodded. 

“He’s actually super nice? I thought for a while that the scary was just a persona he puts up, but now I’m pretty sure he just enjoys messing with people,” Peter mused. Did that mean they were close? You had to be close to make that kind of assessment, right? “It’s great that he’s all broody because he balances out DP’s, uh, personality.” 

“DP?” Tony raised an eyebrow. That had to be the Merc. 

“Deadpool. I know what you’re thinking, if you know who he is, but you wouldn’t think that if you met. He doesn’t kill with us, and he’s got the best jokes and he has taken a bullet for me. We formed a team, actually, Team Red.” 

Tony narrowed his eyes. “Why not tell me then?” 

Peter bit his lip. “It was a fragile relationship and I thought adding someone else to it would break it.” He sounded like he had rehearsed it. Had probably spent the whole night coming up with an answer. “Now we trust each other. I talked it over with them. They’re not thrilled that they’ll be on your watchlist, but they actually encouraged me to tell you the full truth.” 

“Is that why you’re telling me now?” Tony made himself ask. 

He shook his head. “Yesterday we appeared in the Daily Bulge, so I thought I’d have to explain everything today. I called them to ask how much they’re okay with me telling you. Double D said to tell you to not try to find his real identity because his life is shitty enough already. DP says his life is an open book.” 

“I didn’t ask about the article.” 

“I had to tell you. I wanted to. But the more time passed, the more it felt like it could ruin everything. Either you reacted badly or they did. I don't want to lose what I have with any of you." Peter's eyes were steadily on his. 

Tony swallowed. "How would they react badly?" Was he worried they would hurt him? 

Peter smiled a little. "Daredevil would stop talking to me, I think. After he figures out what I told you. Deadpool is harder to predict. I think it would depend on your reaction. He might actually get excited over it. But the team would not survive." 

Broken trust. Cold. So cold. Tony could relate. "So they wouldn't hurt you?" He remembered when his trust had been broken. White hot rage burning in his veins even in the icy cold. Bucky had killed his parents. That was bad enough on its own. Steve had known and hadn’t told him. That made it hurt even more. He had thought they were friends. 

"Never." 

Tony hadn't thought they would hurt him. Tony himself hadn't thought _he_ would hurt them. He had attacked blindly. They hadn't even tried to talk it out of him. They left him cold and broken. "Could I meet them? To confirm?" 

Peter was shaking his head before he had even finished speaking. "DP would probably kiss you. I don't need to see that," he smiled again and Tony smiled back. "Double D doesn't like you, on principle. He might try to punch you inside the suit," he looked thoughtful for one second, then smiled as if thinking of something funny, then he shook his head. 

"It would make me feel better about leaving them with you." 

Peter let out a long sigh of relief. He was smiling when the sigh finished. "I can call them." 

"Sure." 

The kid pulled out a phone that offended Tony's soul. Maybe if Tony reached out hard enough it would magically upgrade itself in his presence alone. There was something to try out with Loki. Tony recognized the model and knew the thing didn't even have a GPS. It wasn’t untrackable, but it would make him have to triangulate his position through phone towers, which took longer. He supposed that was the point. Peter flipped it open, and held a number down for quick dialing. 

"Hey, uh… sorry, I know you are working… I'm with Mr. Stark… I’ll put you on speaker and add DP? I’m putting Daredevil on speaker," Peter raised his voice to indicate he was talking to Tony. Like he wasn't already listening to all he could. The phone volume seemed to be as low as it got and he couldn’t pick anything up from it. 

“Hello Mr. Stark,” a voice greeted. The way he said it made it sound like a completely different set of syllables than when Peter said it, ‘Mr’ tacked on in an attempt at civility and all of the aggression going into his name. Peter clicked a few more buttons and his voice was joined by the tune of waiting for someone to join the call. 

“Tony is perfectly fine,” Tony offered, just in time for Deadpool to hear it. 

“Ohmygod! White! Yellow! Mr. Iron Man said I could call him Tony,” he squealed. His phone didn’t pick up a reply. “Hi Red! hi Webs!.” 

“No,” Daredevil cut in. “He said _I_ could call him Tony.” 

“I can hear you snarling, cool down.” There was some grumbling, followed by a couple deep breaths. “Okay. So we’re doing this over the phone, then?” 

Some more grumbling. “My friend says I’m less likely to pick a fight if I can’t see him,” Peter snickered at that. “I am severely offended by the amount of underestimation on that sentence. I can still-” 

“Best behavior,” Peter said suddenly, and Daredevil fell silent. “That’s why this is not in person,” he added to Tony. 

Tony blinked at the kid. “Didn’t you just say they weren’t violent?” 

There was a snort and a chuckle from the phone. “Not towards me,” Peter blinked innocently. “Back to the point. I told Mr. Stark about the team.” 

“Good,” Daredevil said. 

“I thought you were finally getting me a call with Iron Man because we’re besties!” Deadpool whined. 

Tony cleared his throat. “What I’d like to know, is why two grown adults are hanging out with a teenager,” he said, trying to get them back on track. 

“Pot, meet kettle,” Deadpool sang in the background to Daredevil’s more grounded response of, “We didn’t give him a fancy suit and took him to Germany without the knowledge of their guardian,” he said calmly. 

Admittedly that had not been his best plan. How had they even known about it? Other than the airport shutdown, information about the Avengers’ in-fighting had been kept from the press. He glared at Peter realizing he would have been the one to tell them about it. The kid was shaking his head vehemently. “Gives him more protection than the onesie he was using when I found him,” Tony defended. 

“It wasn’t that bad!” Peter complained. 

“Until you took it away,” Deadpool said, for the first time in the conversation his tone didn’t carry a joke. It made the words feel more impactful than if Daredevil had said them in his steadily disdainful tone. Peter had almost died because of Tony. Tony had thought taking the suit would wash his hands of the guilt his death would bring, but it just made him feel responsible over every single injury the kid had sustained without the suit. 

Had Peter told them everything? He’d have to talk to the kid about this double standard on honesty. In his defence, Peter did look guilty about what was being said. “Won’t be doing that again,” he promised and it was more directed at Peter than the other two. The kid brightened up instantly. "Now answer. What are you doing with him?" 

"People die doing this. It could happen to him." It could easily have sounded like a threat, but Tony could see it was a warning. 

“I’m not going to die doing this,” Peter promised. “I’ve got the suit, which helps a lot, and you’ve been teaching me survival tactics. You know I _have_ to help,” Peter added the last part with that note of determination that made Tony admire him. “You know what happens if we don’t.” Tony felt like he had missed something. That sounded like it came from more than wanting to be a hero the way Tony was a hero. He should probably have a talk with him about that. Later. Without prying ears. 

“You don’t have to map out gangs to help people,” Tony glared at the phone as a proxy for the other two. “He’s in more danger that way.” 

“He’s in more danger if he doesn’t know who is in the gangs.” 

"He walked in on one," Deadpool piped up. What? "Followed some suspicious dude right into their lair." 

Tony's eyes snapped to Peter's. "Why didn't you tell me?" He'd have to make stricter danger alerts. Not just a single all encompassing Life Ending one. 

Peter shrugged. "I got out. Then we brought that part down, but you can't really bring them down if you don't know how they work." 

"How exactly did you get to that conclusion?" 

"What I had wasn't enough to really make a difference or even arrest them." 

That made more sense than Tony wanted it to. "Why not bring it to me?" 

Peter shrugged. "I have more experience," Daredevil offered after a few seconds of silence. "And I had already taken him on a couple stakeouts." 

"So you just tell him what to do and hope he follows?" Tony snapped. 

"I'm the one who's following his stubborn arse," Deadpool snapped back. 

"We give him information," Daredevil added in a more controlled tone. "When it doesn't scare him out we teach him the safer ways to deal with it." 

Tony could relate to that. After all, that was basically what he had made the suit and Karen for. "You mean extremely violently?" 

Daredevil growled. "Not if we can help it." 

"I don't do extreme violence," Peter defended. "I don't want it." 

"But you will if you have to," Tony finished quietly. "You are a kid. You don't drag kids into dangerous situatio-" 

"Like space? Because that was dangerous." Deadpool cut in. 

"Space wasn't his fault," Peter defended, but Tony didn't hear him. 

Tony's breath caught in his throat for a second. He had lost the kid in space. Thanos won on earth though. "Didn't know _you_ fought Thanos," he snarled defensively. 

"Not our fault we don't make it into your movies," Deadpool huffed. It made absolutely no sense. 

"We don't make the shortlist of international heroes." 

"Double D, stop," Peter seemed close to growling the order back. "He didn't want me in space, either." 

Back to grumbling. "Fine." A single, deep breath. "I apologize, Mr. Stark," Daredevil said and it was like his whole tone of voice changed. "Spiderman is out fighting crime. Neither of us can stop that, right?" He moved on without waiting and he definitely sounded less angry, but still held that forced growl he probably used to throw off voice matching. "But we both know it is incredibly dangerous out here, especially with no preparation." 

Tony opened his mouth to agree, but Peter hushed him. 

"You gave him the suit to look after him. You trust your computers. I'm looking after him personally because I don't have that option." Daredevil paused, gathering his thoughts. "I know what people say about me and how that may lead to you thinking I should not be near Spiderman. I agree with you that it is not safe for anyone to do what we do, much less someone his age, but I will sleep a little better if I know he can call me when in trouble. I’d imagine you would sleep better, too, if you know someone other than you is looking out for him.” 

Tony found himself nodding along to his words. They made sense. Daredevil was persuasive, apparently. Who would have thought? He’d probably be even better if he stopped forcing his voice to be harsher. 

“Unless Spiderman tells me to stop contacting him, I’ll keep helping. You don’t have to like us to admit that we have similar intentions.” 

“Protect Spiderman?” he asked for confirmation. 

“Protect everyone in the city,” Daredevil replied instead. 

***

“He told you?” Pepper asked form the screen a few hours later. “You didn’t pry?” 

They didn’t have enough time to meet, Loki had snuck away from a council meeting to videocall them between Pepper’s appointments. Tony was still grinning after Peter left, feeling like most of his problems had been solved even if he knew that wasn’t true. 

“He looked like I kicked his puppy, Pep. I _couldn’t_ ask.” 

Pepper grinned back. “But then he told you on his own. That’s great!” 

Tony nodded. “We also told Loki about him. Fri is no longer hiding Jarvis from me. Peter is not hiding a mini team up. No more secrets here.” 

“I wouldn’t say that, Anthony. You’re just tempting all the other secrets to jump out at you.” Loki smiled at his camera. Tony suddenly remembered that he was now dating the God of Lies. 

What a great time to declare his life secret-free. 

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed, hope I keep writing there enough to actually post them.
> 
> Might be a while? My other drafts are so far from being done omg

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Art: Always Another Secret](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20446277) by [Penndragon27](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Penndragon27/pseuds/Penndragon27)




End file.
